Mormon Bloggers

LDS General Conference Center seats more than 21,000. Sometimes I find myself wanting to copy and paste a whole General Conference talk or at least most of it. These quotes about pain and trials are priceless. They all come from Kent F. Richard’s talk given at the April 2011 Conference. These are superior, discussion-promoting quotes that I would consider for any Sunday School or Relief Society lesson on the same topic. The first is a great ice-breaker to get a class participating: “I have pondered about the purpose of pain. None of us is immune from experiencing pain. I have seen people cope with it very differently. Some turn away from God in anger, and others allow their suffering to bring them closer to God.” “Like you, I have experienced pain myself. Pain is a gauge of the healing process. It often teaches us patience. Perhaps that is why we use the term patient in referring to the sick.” Brother Richards also quoted two wonderful apostles: Elder... Read the rest of this entry »

Trail north of Tom Pearce Parkin Southern Oregon. We spend a lifetime getting ourselves from point A to point B. From where life starts us out, to where we end up. The distance between those two points can be small or great. Life hands us a starting point. We could be born into perfect health, wealth and a remarkably sane family or it could be handicaps, poverty and dysfunction. It could be any combination in between. No matter the starting point, we have a lot of choice about what path we follow, what we achieve, what we spend our energies on. Point B is more about us than circumstance. We worldly wise mortals focus on point B itself. For us the race is to the swift, the strong, the rich, the educated, the popular, the brilliant, the beautiful and even those with spiritual leadership positions. We knock ourselves out to obtain these sorts of statuses with others. We measure each other by whose point B is ahead of whose. We also tend to take credit when life hands us... Read the rest of this entry »

The story of Jesus walking on the water has so much personality. In just a few verses, the account is rich with perspective, depth and self-reflection. I used to think that the Savior was chiding Peter for his seeming lack of faith, which prevented him from walking on the water. Then, with the help of my friend Janie, the admonition from the Savior to Peter became something more meaningful, even gracious and hopeful. The story starts off with John the Baptist being beheaded through the efforts of a scheming, dancing seductress. When the disciples tell Jesus, he reacts by seeking to be apart and finding some solitude in an unwanted desert place. He gets there mostly by ship. When the crowds find out where he is, they follow him on foot. When he discovers the multitudes have followed him, he takes compassion and heals all their sick. But now they are in the middle of nowhere, where Jesus originally went to be alone and there is no way to feed the crowds. They are far from home. Next... Read the rest of this entry »

The world, left to its own wisdom, falls into repeating patterns. One is the deterioration cycle of prosperity to poverty. Another is the loud, self-destructing minority and the direction of public policies and laws. Having just been on a comment thread (now 500+ comments) at Seattle Times for an article entitled “Being Mormon: Does it matter in public eye?” – I can tell you that scorn, ridicule and ignorance are alive and well. So when I read from Matthew 10 this morning, these words resonated: 16 ¶Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. 17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; 22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. 24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. 25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the... Read the rest of this entry »

Tanner and Leif (nephews) © 2011 Matthew 5 (Sermon on the Mount) is so full of gems to wonder on. I’ve been there a week already and it will probably take another week to finish. Sadly, not because I’m so spiritual and pondiferous, but because there are verses I’m clearly not adhering to and being reflective and analyzing myself is taking some time. I have a ways to go! What really struck me today is how extensively Jesus guides us regarding social relations. My husband and I talked this morning about the way the Savior specifically teaches us howto deal with our enemies. Not only does He NOT condemn you for having enemies, but assumes that you WILL have them. He uses phrases like “agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him”. This seems to be the nature of our competitive, short-on-love mortal existence: enemies and adversaries, those who do not wish us well. We cross paths with them at work, at church, at school,... Read the rest of this entry »

The Savior is “the resurrection and the life” and the LOVE. In honor of Easter I’m borrowing from one of my very favorite blogs, “Pitterle Postings” Somehow this fits neatly into my reflections on the Savior and Easter and what life is about. The Hard Loveby Patricia A Pitterle Photo by Patty Ann © 2011 My sweet baby, toddled forwardweaving to and froleft and righton two chubby unsteady legs.She wobbled too far to one side,and like a tree in the windtoppled over.I picked her upkissed her tears awayand set her on her feetto try again.Love can seem so hard!She did not understandwhy I would not rescue herfrom the trials of her world.Her vision only saw the pain. The rewards to comewere hidden from her view. My sweet daughterwondered out into the big, bright, beautiful world.She skipped off to schoolholding a backpack in one handand a lunch box in the other.With a smile and a waveshe started her journey.The bus brought her homelater that day.With... Read the rest of this entry »

I am grateful for quiet answers to fervent prayers. Answers that come as whispers, barely perceptible, but still essential to discovering a next step. Answers that provide just a shade of comfort in the glaring light of adversity. Answers that come in the form of a phone call, an otherwise casual conversation, a hand offered in fellowship that turns out to be a rescuing hand. Answers that come in an expression of love from a church leader. Answers that provide someone to comfort me when I stand in need of comfort. Answers that illuminate possibilities that had previously been hidden. Answers that reveal just one next step in the darkness, even when I’d prefer to see a lighted path. Answers that are only clear in retrospect, which, when taken together, make clear that God is in His Heaven. Answers that, while they do not solve a problem, still ease the burden. Answers that come in familiar strains of music and oft-quoted verses of scripture when I need them the most. Answers that prepare... Read the rest of this entry »

If you get full of yourself and puffed up, you’ll end up looking like a fool… Section 136 of the Doctrine & Covenants is revelation touching the Saints’ exodus out west. Along with the instructions of how to form companies and who is to be at the heads of companies, come the wagon train rules. Rules to live by, rules to get along with each other, important thoughts to remember when all else fails… Some of the simpler ones are: If you borrow, return it. (vs 25) If you find it, make diligent effort to return it to the owner. (vs 26) Keep your promises to each other. (vs 20) If you get puffed up and full of yourself, you’ll look like a fool. (vs 19) Don’t get in fights, if you cant be nice – don’t say it. (vs. 23) Don’t envy what your brother has. (vs 19) Verse 27 caught my eye this morning: “Thou shalt be diligent in preserving what thou hast, that thou mayest be a wise steward; for it is the free gift of the Lord thy... Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been thinking about adversity recently. It’s not that things are going particularly poorly, but it’s been on my mind. Some random thoughts and quotations that have been bouncing around in my head: Alma 7:11-12: And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. From Neal A Maxwell’s biography, A Disciple’s life: In March 2000, when he was in a pondering mood about his illness, with its implications both dreadful and miraculous, Neal had a sacred experience… The soul voice of the Spirit came into his mind to whisper,... Read the rest of this entry »

This is an odd blog post title! Not the typical Molly Mormon Mommy Blogger topic. I have several of those different topics I’m contemplating. Yesterday I mentioned this to a dear friend of mine and it was something she needed to hear right then. Turns out she was depressed over how rotten some people are (actually, a particular person in her case) and how they always seem to get away with their rotting-ness and “nothing ever happens to them”. We’re talking the predators of the world. This wasn’t the gist of my response to her, but I recently had one of those spiritual “a-hah!” moments where something I’ve heard over and over, that I get intellectually, sank deep down into that inner heart shrine and now I get it spiritually. Which is a huge step up. In fact any and every simple principle of the Gospel works that way. It’s one thing to know about it, it’s another thing to really feel it deep down. Makes a world of difference.... Read the rest of this entry »

I like a great bargain as much as the next girl, but I am not a fan of shopping in general. There are too many choices – and I always seem get the dressing room furnished with the circus mirror. This Christmas I won a gift card to a fancy department store at my husband’s work party.  I had been inside this store three in my life – never once buying anything. This particular store had an outlet  Read More →

My girlfriend emailed back a question in response to a quote. Here it is: Q. …So what I am getting out of this is when we want to control people we are in a sense acting like Satan. I think that it is hard to allow people to do wrong to us, like allowing someone to break one of the ten commandments against us. But what are we supposed to do? Just allow them to make wrong choices and know that God will be their judge in the end and they will have to answer to him not us? But why would we want to enable others to keep making wrong choices that hurt us others and themselves when we could help them to see that what they are doing is wrong? I welcome any feed back! A. I’ll take a shot at this. Without knowing the details, I’m guessing this is a tough situation, like one of those Tar Baby kinds. There are several gospel principles to keep in balance here: Love of Christ, love of thy neighbor and love of yourself. Elder Uchtdorf just reminded us in conference how important... Read the rest of this entry »